Former Lily Mine workers marched to the Mpumalanga High Court today to hand over a memorandum protesting a court interdict against the reopening of the mine.
The memorandum was handed over to the registrar of the court, who said he would hand it over to the judge president, Francis Legodi.
“The mine closure has severely impacted our community,” said Petrus Mokoena, the elected spokesperson for the mineworkers.
Mokoena addressed the crowd of former Lily Mine employees, police officers and members of the media. Lily Mine has been under business rescue since 2016.
All operations stopped in February of that year when a mine shaft collapsed, trapping a container with three mineworkers underground. Their bodies have yet to be retrieved.
On February 26, the Mpumalanga High Court issued an interim interdict to halt an amended business rescue plan for Lily Mine.
The mineworkers at today’s march said the business rescue practitioner was ready with a plan to reopen the mine, but the court’s interdict was stopping this from happening.
On February 15, Vantage Goldfields, the mine’s former owner, received approval from the business rescue practitioner to implement its proposed business rescue plans. This would have allowed for Lily to reopen.
However, another company, Arqomanzi, which has a bid on Lily Mine, applied for the interim interdict in order to delay the implementation of business rescue plans for the mine.
The community said they were tired of the continued litigation and delays regarding the reopening.
“It is over 60 months since our community was left without jobs and have gone through more than 12 court litigations,” said Mokoena.
“We want the business rescue practitioners to be allowed to carry on; go ahead and execute the already approved business rescue plans without further delays.”
Members of the public demand that their outstanding salaries be paid and that the bodies of the three miners be retrieved.
“Give the families the closure they deserve,” implored Mokoena. “The failure of the business rescue practitioners to implement the approved plans has been delayed by unnecessary litigation and has exposed our community to poverty and unemployment.”
Comments